


PAM. le 
MISC. 
SAGE FUND BULLETIN No. 2 


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Weighty Indorsements 


OME may suppose that appeals for the 
Endowment Fund are one-sided, coming 
from the American Bible Society alone. 

In May, 1908, several great ecclesiastical 
bodies formulated opinions on this subject. 
We repeat them here because they show 
hearty sympathy with the aims, work, and 
needs of the Society. 

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
Church of the U. S. A. (North) took the fol- 
lowing action at Kansas City: 


The Assembly calls the especial attention of all the 
churches under its jurisdiction to the American Bible 
Society, the agency by which ourchurch, in common 
with many others, acts in securing the translation, 
publication, and distribution of the Holy Scriptures, 
both at home and abroad. The Society has always 
been the effective servant and fellow-helper of all our 
missionary agencies. The diverse populations of this 
country and the vast masses in non-Christian coun- 
tries, accessible to the colporteur as never before, are 
so taxing its resources that an increased and certain 
revenue is imperatively needed. 

The Assembly notes with pleasure the generous 
offer of Mrs. Russell Sage, of New York City, to give 
$500,000, provided the Society shall raise a like amount 
during this calendar year, the whole to be used as a 
perpetual endowment fund. 

This Assembly repeats the urgent exhortation of 

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previous Assemblies that all our churches make an 
annual offering for the Society; that standing com- 
mittees be appointed in each Presbytery to co-operate 
with the officers of the Society in forwarding its work 
and meeting its necessities. It advises that the 
churches, without diminishing their regular annual 
gifts, shall lend a hand so far as possible to aid the 
Society in raising this money, and it commends to 
men, and especially to women of large wealth, the 
propriety of completing the endowment made possible 
by Mrs. Sage’s offer. The Assembly urges the women 
of the Presbyterian Church to do their share in giving 
the Bible to their sisters in every land who so greatly 
need its blessed influence. 


The General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
Church in the U. S. (South) called on the 
women to help, and gave the strong indorse- 
ment to the endowment plan which follows: 


1. In view of the fact that Mrs. Russell Sage, of 
New York, has offered to the American Bible Society 
a half-million dollars on condition that the Society 
shall raise a like sum during this calendar year, this 
whole to be used as an endowment of its work, the 
Assembly commends to its churches the efforts of the 
Society to secure this amount without lessening its 
ordinary yearly receipts, which should be enlarged. 
As this is a woman’s offer, there may be other rich 
women who can and will follow her example. 

2. That our pastors and people be called upon for 
larger contributions and for contributions from all 
the churches. 

3. That they be further urged to hearty co-opera- 
tion with the American Bible Society and its aims 
and purposes for meeting the destitution of the living 
Word that exists within our bounds. 


The General Synod of the Reformed Church 
in America deserves thanks for pointing to 
this Society’s work as binding together the 
Protestant Church. ue resolution follows: 


Resolved, That the Synod has heard with great 
pleasure the report of the American Bible Society, 
and renews the commendations of former Synods 
concerning the said Society, whose enlarged work 
now urges enlarged income. ‘That all our churches 
and consistories are earnestly urged to exert them- 
selves to secure this result by taking an annual col- 
lection for this Society. We call especial attention to 
the generous offer of Mrs. Russell Sage of New York 
to give half a million dollars provided another half 
million be raised this year, the said amount to be a 
permanent endowment fund. Such an offer should 
awaken an earnest endeavor to complete the necessary 
endowment of this Society, whose work binds together 
the Protestant Churches. 


The General Conference of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, held at Baltimore, said: 


The annual collection ordered by the Methodist 
Episcopal Church ought to receive attention and 
recommendation. We especially commend the work 
of the Agents of the Society and its Auxiliaries in the 
country districts, which are so largely neglected by 
all the Churches, and we earnestly recommend to all 
our Conferences covering such a territory that public 
anniversaries of the Society be held at Conference 
sessions at least once during each quadrennial. 


Turning back over the pages of the reports 
we come upon two other weighty declarations 
made some six months before Mrs. Russell 
Sage’s generous purpose was known, refer- 
ring to the work of the Society and not to the 
endowment. One of these is from the House 
of Bishops in the General Conference of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church held at Rich- 
mond, Va., in October, 1907. The action of 
the Bishops follows: 


The American Bible Society has been used of God 
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in giving to the Chinese Church the two versions in 
Mandarin and in Wenli, the results of the heroic toil 
of Bishop Schereschewsky. It has published the New 
Testament also in the languages needed by our North 
American Indians. At the present time, in conjunc- 
tion with the British and Foreign Bible Society, it is 
carrying forward, at a cost of many thousands of dol- 
lars, a revised translation of the Portuguese Scriptures 
for use in Brazil. ‘These instances of its wide useful- 
ness, both at home and abroad, constitute a valid 
plea for our sympathy and our prayers, and make it 
a proper subject for the benevolence of all who love 
God’s Holy Word. 

Resolved, That the House of Bishops commends 
anew to the generous consideration of all the congre- 
gations of this Church the service rendered for more 
than ninety years by this historic Society. 


The other ecclesiastical document which 
belongs in this connection is the action of the 
National Council of Congregational Churches 
held at Cleveland, Ohio, in October, 1907. 
This is the resolution adopted by the National 
Council: 


Whereas, There is a vital relation between circu- 
lation of the Bible and the success of evangelistic 
effort in all its forms; and 

Whereas, The American Bible Society, in carry- 
ing out its aim of increasing the circulation of the 
Bible throughout the world, renders important services 
to our churches in their missionary and Sunday-school 
enterprises, both in the United States and in foreign 
lands ; 

Voted, That we recommend to Congregational 
churches that they aquaint their people with the work 
of the American Bible Society, and that they include, 
where practicable, an annual contribution for that 
work in their scheme of systematic church benevo- 
lence. 


Many of the religious newspapers might be 
quoted to show the importance of the appeal 
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for an endowment under Mrs. Russell Sage’s 
offer to the American Bible Society. We 
reprint only the editorial utterance of the 
February, 1909, issue of the Wsstonary Herald, 
the organ of the American Board: 


The endowment of this Society is of vital interest 
to mission workers in all parts of the world, as it fur- 
nishes them the chief implement with which their 
work is to be done—the Bible in the vernacular of the 
people to whom they go. When the missionary has 
to make a new translation of the Bible into a lan- 
guage or dialect perhaps unwritten before, he has 
the treasury of the Bible Society behind him as a 
kind of insurance that his version will expeditiously 
and serviceably be put in print. 


An object which has thus impressed great 
and good men has claims upon all. 

We need, March 20, 1909, $364,030.96 in 
order to secure Mrs. Sage’s gift of $500,000. 

Do what you can to help raise this money. 

Send subscriptions to WILLIAM FOoULKE, 
TREASURER, AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, 
BisLE House, Astor PLACE, NEw York, or 
to any one of the Agency Secretaries. 


Addresses of the 
Agency Secretaries 
on the next page. 


Home Agencies of the American 
Bible Society. 


Agency for the Colored People of the South ; 
Rev. J. P. Wrace, D.D., Agency Secretary, South Atlanta, 
Ga. 


Northwestern Agency : Wlinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, 
Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Da- 
kota. 


Rey. J. F. Horton, Agency Secretary, 42 East Madison 
Street, Chicago, Ill. 


South Atlantic Agency ; Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, 
South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. 


Rev. M. B. Porter, Agency Secretary, 204 Bank of Rich- 
mond Building, Richmond, Va. 


Central Agency; Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, 
Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, and Arizona. 


Rev. S. H. KirKsripE, D.D., Agency Secretary, 1025 
Fourteenth Street, Denver, Colo. 


Pacific Agency : California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. 


Rev. A. WesLtEY MeEtt, Agency Secretary, 216 Pacific 
Building, Fourth and Market Streets, San Francisco, Cal. 


Southwestern Agency; Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Ar- 
kansas. 


Rev. GLENN Fiinn, Agency Secretary, 422 Main Street, 
Dallas, Texas. 


